Cult War: Month Two

February is a short month but also doesn't have the post New Year hangover that January is lumbered with. With this in mind I was curious to see if I could match last months output. Thankfully (kind of) continuing health problems (both mental and physical) meant a fair chunk of time off work, silver linings and all that.

First up was some more Imperial Guard Neophytes. I had these guys down colour scheme wise and they were real easy to get done so I wanted to crank out ten ASAP. That would put me a third of the way towards target. With those out of the way I did a Mortar Heavy Weapons Team, Nice.

Next up was to finish a few bits i'd started the previous month. 4 Abberants and a couple more Acolytes. I could already tell with this army that the Acolytes were going to be the biggest pain in the arse to paint. There are so many in this army too, I have about 40 more to do. That's a lot of yellow.

I also grabbed a couple of Sentinels and these were a blast to put together and magnetise. Really nice kits and i'd be tempted to grab another couple. I probably will if the army needs it when I finally start playing. These had a bit of paint slapped onto them but I wasn't sure I'd get them finished this month.

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Except I did, once I had the Camo worked out the first one came together really quick. I left the second half finished for the moment. Next up was something about 569% more colourful, some Metamorphs. Painted just like the Acolytes but with a bundle more magenta and purple to make them stand out. Quite possibly the brightest thing I have ever painted.

At this point we were about half way through the month. Necessitating a brief break ( I have a girlfriend now) for Valentines day. Still, after that it was back to the Brotherhood of the Yellow King.

Some Neophytes were up next. I really was putting those acolytes off, even going as far as to convert some more to Metamorphs using some spare bits. I also have five Metamorphs to construct from the kit so I think I have about twenty all in. About half way through the Neophytes I started to get batch painting fatigue and decided to grab a Chimera, utilising the camo scheme i had created for my Sentinels. I got it mostly done but didn't finish it as it was only meant to be a distraction from the infantry.

Juggling quality time with my awesome GF Kirstie (lots of Board Games) with some painting Saw me half painting some more stuff. Coming up to the last few days of February I had about 8 Neophytes and a Heavy Mortar Team and a Sentinel sat in my 'get these done by the end of the month' pile. A load of snow the likes of which I haven't seen in about six years gave me the opportunity to paint the majority of it and the last evening was spent painting right up to midnight while half watching a couple of movies on Netflix with the last thing being finished actually being the second Sentinel.

So, the final count for Feb:

3 Metamorphs
2 Acolytes
4 Aberrants
10 Guard Neophytes
13 Cult Neophytes
2 Mortar Heavy Weapons Teams
2 Sentinels.

36 Infantry and a couple of Walkers. Not a bad effort! I also grabbed some bits and pieces to make a couple more squads i'll use as Neophytes to balance out the Acolyte heavy force.

So, looking to March, I aim to paint the following.

Chimera
7 Metamorphs
10 more Neophytes
Primus
10 Guard Neophytes
and yes, 8 more Acolytes. Sigh.

I have to be honest though, I AM starting to feel a bit of Batch painting fatigue though and I wouldn't be surprised to see my resolve waver and something else get attacked with a paint brush at some point. Maybe some board game models or some scenery.

The main thing to do though is arrange a few games with Lee! We are starting with Shadow Wars as he has only painted a squad or two so far but he is aiming to ramp this up with a couple of Start Collecting boxes so we can start playing bigger games.

In the meantime i'll also be working on chapter 2 of my background short fiction so keep an eye out for that and the fate of Larkarsky and Alistae Carn as the mystery deepens.....

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Month two was pretty much a continuation of month one in that I am still painting my first month’s allocation of models. I don’t know how Allen has been able to get so much finished but that’s the nature of cults I suppose. I didn’t get anywhere near enough stuff done for various reasons and I consider it, and by extension myself, an abject failure. Despite this, I am well pleased with the items I did complete.

My Inquisitor, Crusader, Savant and Freelance Peacekeeping Agent (don’t call him a bounty hunter) are all finished with my Guard Veteran started. Unfortunately, I did not get any more scenery painted though I got some more put together.

Allen and I played a couple of games of Shadow War to cap off our second month and on the table top both forces looked quite handsome. Allen’s minions of festering xeno corruption are suitably dark whilst my eclectic bunch are a veritable carnival of colours by comparison. I did take my time in picking the colour schemes and it was effort well spent. (more on this game in Cult War Month 3! - Al)

My Inquisitor is painted to match Clint Eastwood’s outfit in the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The Crusader is standard Crusader colours as I quite liked those as they were. The Savant is mostly metal but with a few colourful flushes.

My favourite model to paint this month was my Death Watch Marine stand in model. It started as a Marvel universe era Deaths Head Heroclix figure. I’ve given it a new base to match the rest of the warband and repainted him in his Transformers era colours. I imagine he is taking a detour during his adventures through space and time to earn a few more Shanix before hopping to the next franchise. He’s suitably imposing standing next to the rest of the gang so fits well into the role of a Death Watch marine.

One of the reasons for my lack of progress is that I was side-tracked painting one of my all time favourite models, Trish Carden’s metal Great Unclean One. I used this in a game against an army of Custodes all mounted on jet bikes and he did well slicing through a fair few of them.

So, for March I want to catch up. I have put together the contents of a Start Collecting! Tempestus Scions complete with wheel upgrade for the Taurox from Victoria Miniatures and my aim is to get most if not all of these painted. They are the first line of reinforcements my Inquisitor has called in to help him eradicate the cult. If they are complete, then I plan to repeat the feat by completing a Start Collecting! Adeptus Mechanicus who I’ll expand in May. Forge World have indicated we will be getting rules for Mechanicum units in 40k and I already have some painted who would make for free additions to my force and allow me to diversify my forces without having to buy anything else. Once I’m satisfied I’ll start adding Dark Angels. (Clearly a radical Inquisitor then ;) -Al)